The biggest opportunity no one talks about

When it comes to getting things done inside the firm, many large companies simply missed the big mega-trends that we all take for granted as individuals. Search? Social filters? Self-service? We all have much better tools at home than at work.

Although there are 100s of millions of people working in large firms – over 13 million in the top 50 US companies alone – most of them are working like it’s 1995, in a pre-Google, pre-Facebook era.

That’s a huge opportunity since, in the past few years, it’s become easier and more practical to implement the kinds of shifts that have been happening on the internet inside our firms.

Unfortunately, social software vendors and collaboration experts tend to talk about things like improved innovation, communications, and employee engagement. Those are nice stories, but they’re missing the headline.

The real story

The headline is how much commercial value these collaboration platforms can unlock. Beyond blogging and tweeting, we can finally transform how 100s of millions of people work, making a tremendous difference in both operating costs and productivity.

We all know the internet is great for exposing waste and highlighting opportunities; for connecting experts and coordinating work; for tapping into collective wisdom to solve and create.

A use case I find everyone can relate to is service requests inside the firm. When we have an issue with a product or service at home, we’re used to searching for an answer and finding online forums either from the vendor or from people contributing on their own.

At most firms, though, we still have extraordinary numbers of emails & phone calls to help desks and to anyone we can find for HR, IT, or facilities issues.

That one simple use case – shifting that internal service burden to online forums (augmented by community feedback and contribution to further improve quality and comprehensiveness) – is worth $10+ million for large firms.

This post covers the broader service issues. And you’re question is inspiring me to write up a more complete business treatment of this and other use cases…